Melissa Bank

Melissa Bank
Born	1961 (age 49–50)[1] Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Occupation	Novelist
Language	English
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Genres	Chick lit
Notable work(s)	The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing
Notable award(s)	Nelson Algren Award, 1993
Influences Vladmir Nabokov, John Cheever, Billy Collins, Grace Paley

Melissa Bank (born in 1961 in Philadelphia) is an American author. Along with English author Helen Fielding, Bank is credited with giving rise to the Chick Lit genre.^{[citation needed]} She has published two novels, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing and The Wonder Spot, which have been translated into over thirty languages.^[2] Bank was the winner of the 1993 Nelson Algren Award for short fiction.^[2]

Biography

Bank was born in Philadelphia; her father, a neurologist, died of leukemia in his late 50s.^[1] Bank attended Hobart and William Smith Colleges,^{[citation needed]} and has an MFA from Cornell University.^[2] Bank's literary influences include Vladmir Nabokov, John Cheever, Billy Collins, and Grace Paley;^[2] her favorite nonfiction writer is Janet Malcolm.^[1]

The Girls' Guide to Hunting And Fishing

The Girls' Guide to Hunting And Fishing took Bank twelve years to write.^[1] Most of that time Bank worked as a copywriter, focusing on the novel in her spare time.^[1] About five years before the book was published, Bank was involved in a serious bicycle accident where she was struck by a car. She landed on her head, and even though she was wearing a helmet, she suffered post-concussion syndrome for almost two years. This condition affected her short-term memory and deprived her of the "top 10 to 15% of [her] vocabulary"; she was unable to order information or perform sequential thinking. Bank had to stop writing the book during this period.^[1]

Finally published in 1999, The Girls' Guide to Hunting And Fishing was a bestseller in both the United States and the United Kingdom, garnering mostly positive reviews. The Los Angeles Times wrote, "Bank writes like John Cheever, but funnier."^[3] Newsweek critic Yahlin Chang wrote, "Bank draws exquisite portraits of loneliness, and she can do it in a sentence."^[4] Others placed Ms. Bank in the school of restraint exemplified by Hemingway and Raymond Carver.^{[citation needed]}

Bank has published short stories and nonfiction in such publications as the Chicago Tribune, Ploughshares, Zoetrope, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and Seventeen, as well as been broadcast on National Public Radio and the BBC.^[2]

Bank divides her time between New York City and East Hampton.^[1][2]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} "A Polished Act (Interview)," The Guardian (July 19, 1999).
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f} "Melissa Bank," Red Room. Accessed March 31, 2011.
3. ^ "The Best Books of 1999: The Best Fiction of 1999", Los Angeles Times (Dec. 5, 1999).
4. ^ Chang, Yahlin. "A Hot Young Writer You Can Bank On," Newsweek (May 31, 1999).

Persondata
Name	Bank, Melissa
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1961
Place of birth	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Date of death
Place of death